Britain fails to take count of migrant workers

London, Jan 3 (ANI): At least 170,000 more migrant workers are taking up British jobs each year than official figures show because of undercounting in employment statistics.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS), the main Government tool for measuring changes in the workforce, fails to include any foreigners in the country for less than a year, the Daily Telegraph reported.

In addition, migrant workers living in communal properties are also excluded, meaning many thousands more could also be under the radar.

The omissions mask the total impact immigration has on the British labour force, prompting accusations from the Conservatives than ministers have misrepresented the situation.

In total, foreign workers make up one in seven of the labour market, despite Prime Minister Gordon Browns pledge to create British jobs for British workers.

Figures in November show migrants have accounted for all the growth in employment over the past two years while the number of Britons in work has fallen.

Tory MP James Clappison, who uncovered the hidden workers, said: This underlines the scale of penetration by foreign workers of the UK labour market and undermines still further the Governments claims about generating new jobs for UK workers.

The LFS is one of the official employment counts published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and is based on a survey of tens of thousands of households, The Telegraph reported.

But statisticians in the House of Commons Library admitted it does not include temporary migrant workers in the count.

That is migrants who are working in the UK for less than a year but, in contrast, the survey does count temporary British workers who may only be in jobs for a few months.

The paper reported in November how the overall level of employment increased by about 320,000 between September 2006 and September 2008 - up from 29.17 million to 29.49 million.

But during the two-year period the number of British workers in jobs fell by 149,000 while the number of migrant employees increased by 469,000. (ANI)